Humphries in World Championship hunt
Newbury’s Luke Humphries is set to go in search of his first ever major title when he begins his World Darts Championship campaign next week.
Cool Hand Luke, who became a father for the first time in October, is the fifth seed for the event at Alexandra Palace, having won four times on the European Tour this year.
Humphries' memorable 2022 has seen him rise from 19th in the world to become one of the sport's stars.
He’ll begin his campaign next Friday at the second round stage, taking on either Keegan Brown or Florian Hempel.
The 27-year-old is full of confidence after he reached the semi-finals of the Grand Slam of Darts last month, beating world number one Michael van Gerwen 16-10 in a sensational quarter-final success.
Humphries has reached the quarter-final stage of the World Championships in three of the last four years and believes he’s got what it takes to do even better this time around.
“It seems to be a good place for me, I tend to play my best darts there and I think there’s a real opportunity this year to go and do well,” he said.
“I’m a much better player now than I have been at previous World Championships and I’d be silly not to believe I can win it, but there’s another 95 players that will all be thinking the same thing.”
Next month Humphries will swap Britain for Bahrain as he prepares to take part in the inaugural Bahrain Darts Masters, his World Series of Darts debut.
He’ll be part of a 16 player field at the Bahrain International Circuit as eight PDC stars come up against eight Asian representatives, including two qualifiers from the host nation.
The tournament will witness the return of Dutchman Raymond van Barneveld, the five-time World Champion featuring in his first World Series event since 2019.
World Champions Peter Wright, Gerwyn Price and Rob Cross will also step up to the oche in Bahrain, alongside reigning Grand Slam champion Michael Smith and two-time World Series winner Dimitri Van den Bergh.
Michael van Gerwen will not compete due to a pre-planned family holiday while the eight Asian representatives will be decided through qualifiers taking place between December 17-18.
